decreasing flow at night

[devonjevon]

Does anyone turn off powerheads at night to decrease flow?
How does this lower flow rate affect your corals?
Currently I turn off my two koralis 4 about 10 and they start up again at 6 am. However I forgot and left them on for the last 4 days.
I have had no ill effects so I am wondering if i need to turn them off at all.

 

[NeveSSL]

I do. I don't think it effects my corals. I could be wrong, though.

I turn one of my Koralia 3's off overnight. The only reason I do it is because I heard it makes it easier for your fish to sleep. Makes sense, but I'm not sure how big of a deal it is, either. Let me know if you find anything out.

Brandon

 

[DMBillies]

I don't turn any of my pumps off at night. I have heard it is a little easier on fish too, but I don't know if that is just a "seems like it should be that way" kind of idea or if it actually does anything. A lot of corals feed mainly at night, so my "seems like it should be that way" explanation is that any gain you'd get from a fish standpoint would be offset by a positive effect on your corals. That is really just a guess though... so take it for what it is worth.

I have watched a couple of shows on coral reefs lately and was definitely struck by the amount of water movement in almost all of the videos. Our tanks generally don't even get close to approximating that flow except in very small "beams" coming from our pump outputs.

One thing you might want to be sure of is whether or not you turning your pumps off causes a large change in temperature from day (all pumps on, lights on) to night (no heat from lights or pumps). Pumps can generate an amazing amount of heat and depending on your setup you might get a decent sized temperature swing...

 

[crumbletop]

I run Tunze Streams on a controller and they ramp way down at night. I'm not sure if it actually does anything for the corals or not. Most corals feed at night, and it probably allows better access to food in the water column, but as Brian mentioned, that is probably mostly "seems like it should be that way" -- not sure if it has been studied in hobbyists aquariums.

 

[fallinapart]

I turn off my closed loop system at night, but the power heads stay on. But to be honest I do that to save a little on the electric bill

Norman